I am so excited to head to Toronto this week (my first time!) and participate in the Explore Canada Like a Local blogger campaign. I will be touring the city, seeing, shopping and dining at some of the best locations Toronto has to offer. (You can follow my journey right here.) We’ve featured so many incredible Canadian…
This week I decided to do another round-up from our archives, partly in response to a reader request, partly to continue showcasing what’s in our archives and partly to take stock of what we’ve done and what we should do more of. Halfway through the archives, I realized that a seasonal-outdoorsy-fun-with-friends theme was emerging. So…
Each year, about the time when all the spring flowers are blooming, I wish for my own little garden where I would grow garden roses, hydrangeas and lavender. Of course, I’ve spent my entire adult life in an apartment, so the thought that I could actually grow anything is pretty far fetched. Perhaps an easier…
If you can believe it, summer travel season is just about here. Whether you’re going abroad or staying local, vacations are always too short, and it’s nice to bring home a special memento to keep you going until the next trip. Our sneak peekers are a creative bunch. No souvenir shot glasses for this group…
After seeing so many awesomely altered cabinets and hutches over the years, I’m convinced that anyone, regardless of his or her craft skills or experience, can transform a piece of furniture to suit their tastes— with a little creativity, of course. I know I suffer from procrastination when it comes to larger pieces of furniture,…
I can’t even tell you how excited I am for spring. I know this hasn’t been a bad winter, but honestly, it isn’t the cold that bothers me. It’s the lack of sunlight. And now that sunset is officially at 7:25 pm, I’m feeling a lot happier. Of course, my happiness might also be due…
Here in the Bay Area, we eagerly await the last month of summer. Believe it or not, it usually brings the first hot and sunny days of the season. I’ve rounded up our best outdoor DIY projects with the hope that everyone who’s lucky enough to get outside will be inspired to try out a…
Rope is one of our current obsessions, but it’s also one of those items that will never leave my love list. It’s just a fantastic material, one of humanity’s greatest inventions. Rope owes all of its strength, durability and beauty to its structure. One simple knot can look as beautiful and graceful as many intricate…
I love pulling themes from our Sneak Peek archives; it’s fun seeing how people creatively respond to different problems. One of my recent favorites was our best of bikes, and after looking through hundreds of homes, I realized we had a lot of musical home dwellers. Everyone seems to have a guitar propped in the corner…
Brrrr . . . it’s been beautifully sunny in Brooklyn lately, but still a bit too chilly for my West Coast sensibilities. I’ve scoured our archives and pulled our best cozy textile DIY projects this morning in the hopes that they will warm me up. One thing I love about winter is the prevalence of…
In honor of this month’s navy theme on the new Design*Sponge Pinterest page, I was inspired to go through the Sneak Peek archives and hunt for navy in homes. I tried hard to stick to navy and not get distracted by teal or cornflower, and there was a lot of turquoise that didn’t make the…
I love maps, and the older the better. I absolutely adore giving reproduction maps from the New York Public Library. It’s seriously my favorite gift for nearly any occasion. Moved to a neighborhood in Brooklyn? A reproduction fire insurance map. Just got married? A map of your honeymoon location. I can come up with plenty of…
I think if you took a vote from the d*s team, stripes would rank pretty high on the list of all time favorite patterns. They are so easily incorporated into every style of decor and just add the perfect little pop of color. I searched through the Sneak Peek Archives to find my favorite examples…
I’ll spare you the obvious comparisons to earrings (just know that I’m really holding back here!), but in my mind, there’s not a room in the home that could do without a little chandelier magic. (Full disclosure: my very first column for Design*Sponge was about chandeliers, so I’m a little sentimental about the topic!) In…
The chilly nights here in Martha’s Vineyard make me want to cozy up to some of the amazing fireplaces we’ve been fortunate enough to feature over the years in D*S sneak peeks. From working and non-working fireplaces to faux, painted and covered mantles, these amazing home owners have showcased it all and I hope their…
I’ve always had a thing for patterned floors. I think they remind me of my travels and how different patterns can have different meanings. It’s fun to think of the floor as an accessory that helps to bring furniture alive. We’ve seen a wide range of floors in the sneak peeks, but today’s Best Of…
Despite living in the technology age — or perhaps precisely because we’re in the technology age — the act of writing and receiving letters in the mail holds the same appeal and excitement for me as I imagine it did for Henry James or John and Abigail Adams. Though I couldn’t dream of matching the…
Grace’s shopping-free gift guide really resonated with me, and I felt a surge of excitement at the prospect of actually following through on making all my gifts this year. I think handmade gifts have the potential to be loved and cherished far longer than any store-bought present. This is not to say that everyone wants…
In going through the 500+ sneak peeks we’ve featured, I must admit that I was surprised by how little purple was represented in homes, particularly given its calm and welcoming effect. As far as I’m concerned, if you’re looking to do something different with your home, purple could become the next big thing. Here are…
My own kitchen backsplash is an ugly brown tile that looks like something left over from the 1970s. I do my best to cover it up with my cutting boards and try to forget it’s there. I’ve always dreamed of a simple kitchen with a little extra kick in the backsplash area (growing up, my mother…
